Joan Crawford plays a lonely typist who works out of her LA bungalow. After she encounters Cliff Robertson as a younger man, and the two fall in love, she notices signs of mental instability in Robertson's character. The film hints at the answer to the question it raises over the reasons that underlie the younger-man-older-woman romance. Robertson had been previously married to the character played by Vera Miles's. Later the film introduces Robertson's father, played by Lorne Greene. It's within the triangular relationship between Robertson, his father Lorne Greene, and his ex-wife Vera Miles that the film reveals, a storyline that takes the viewer into a pretty interesting gutter. This is heightened by the absence of Robertson's mother, Greene's ex-wife, who died but left behind an inheritance. When Crawford's character is added into the mix in one of her more neurotic roles (even the psychiatrist in the film notices her neuroses) and Robert Aldrich directing, this film achieves some epic moments.
Review of Autumn Leaves
